Kelsey Serwa takes another ski cross title at San Candido

Winner Canada's Kelsey Serwa (C), second-placed Canada's Georgia Simmerling (L) and third-placed Switzerland's Katrin Mueller celebrate on the podium of the women's Ski Cross World Cup on December 23, 2012 in San Candido.

Photograph by: Pierre Teyssot
, AFP/Getty Images

Kelsey Serwa doesn’t know if it’s the lucky iron under her mattress or the the fine Italian food.

But for the ski cross racer out of Kelowna, there is definitely something special about the little mountain town of San Candido, Italy.

Serwa, the 2011 world and X Games champion, put the pepperoni on her pizza Sunday, winning a World Cup event for the third straight time on a hill she loves. and completing the comeback from last season’s blown knee.

“It feels so good, a nice early Christmas present,” said Serwa, 23.

And she did it in style, making a daring pass midway through the four-racer final, sweeping from last place to first through a couple of rhythm sections and then holding on for the Canadian team’s first win of the season.

“Never in a final before,” said Serwa of going from fourth-to-first and becoming the first woman other than Fanny Smith of Switzerland to win a race this season. “I’ve done it in a semifinal and a first round, but never in a final. It almost feels like I worked for it more this way, just getting in front and staying in front. I had to be smart and tactical, rather than just skiing.”

It was a great day for another B.C. skier as Georgia Simmerling of West Vancouver grabbed second place for the first podium of her brief career. In the men’s race, Brady Leman of Calgary, who was coming off a pair of second-place finishes, went down in his semifinal, but then won the consolation final to move closer to overall World Cup leader Armin Niederer of Switzerland, who was 18th.

Serwa was second at San Candido in 2010, then won back-to-back races at the small resort in the Dolomites of Sesto in December, 2011, before tearing the ACL in her left knee three weeks later.

“I don’t know, I think I sleep on horseshoes while I’m here,” she said by cell phone as the Canadian squad was driving to Munich for a flight home. “I love it. It’s one of my favorite stops. We stay right across from the hill, so we’re a five-minute walk. And it’s only a five-minute walk into town. There’s a lot of cute shops and a lunch place that has the best pizza in all of Europe.”

After being sidelined much of last season, Serwa was a little cautious in her return, finishing ninth, fourth and 15th in the first three World Cups. And then she “compressed everything in my knee” landing on rock-hard snow off a jump last week in Austria, requiring hours of physio and message that last few days.

But as she was getting ready in the start area Sunday, she told her ski technician Rod Honey that she was “sick of losing.

“He said ‘Yup, I’m sick of losing, too.’ And I was like ‘Okay, it’s time to win.’”

She breezed through her quarterfinal and semifinal, getting out in front and winning both. But she was slow out of the gate in the final, settling into fourth behind Swiss ace Katrin Mueller, French veteran Ophelie David and Simmerling.

She timed her pass perfectly, however, going inside of Simmerling and Davide off a table top and inside of Mueller on a couple of rollers leading into a right hand turn.

“It was a fun day. I’m happy to be back on top. It feels like it’s been a really long time. The pieces are starting to fall together.”

Simmerling, who missed much of last season with a back injury, had never advanced out of the quarterfinals in four previous World Cup starts, so she was delighted with her second-place finish. She was actually third through the finish line, but David was disqualified for contact that spilled Mueller and nearly took out Simmerling.

“I saw Katrin’s skis go up in the air and she took a tumble and almost decapitated me with her ski,” said Simmerling. “I had to ski around her along the nets. I would have been ecstatic with third . . . I’m, obviously, very, very excited and surprised.”

Marielle Thompson of Whistler, the reigning World Cup champion, was 11th.

Leman was in second place in his semifinal when the skis of another racer clipped his and spun him out.

“I have very mixed feelings. I wanted to be in the final and be on the podium again, but . . . I’m super pleased with my consistency so far this season. It was something we identified from last season, something I needed to work on.”

With his fifth-place points, Leman now has 245, 28 back of Niederer, who failed to advance out of the round of 32. Alex Fiva of Switzerland, who won Sunday’s race ahead of Daniel Bohnacker of Germany, is third with 244 points.

The Canadian squad now returns home for the Christmas break before returning to Europe for a pair of races in Les Contamines, France, Jan. 11-12.

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